Tuesday's Therapy Tips: What To Do If You're in a Bad Mood Sometimes?

Thought for the Day: I answered a question a while back on Health Tap and think it is an important one to share here, with a little more detail than the 400 characters that health tap allows. It was asked by a 59 year old man, but it could have come from anyone, since men and women of all ages experience moodiness from time to time. He simply said:

I'm in a bad mood some time?

Here's my answer:

We all have bad moods

from time to time. If it happens every once in a while, that's normal. If it occurs frequently, you may want to consider speaking with a therapist to determine why you are feeling down so often. Talking about our negative feelings doesn't increase them, it actually relieves the tension and makes room for more positive moods.

To elaborate a bit more, we all could benefit from taking an inventory of how we are feeling. It could help to assess whether it's time for a mental health check up with a professional. Take some time, ask yourself how have you felt on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10, is joyful, and 1, is depressed, over the last week? Be honest and write it down for every day. If your numbers are leaning towards the negative end of the scale more often than the positive side, try keeping tabs for a few more days. Perhaps you will see a pattern. For instance, if every Monday when you need to return to work you feel depressed, problems at work may need to be addressed. 

Once you begin to see that your "bad moods" are taking up too much space in your life, go ahead and call a psychologist to talk about what is bothering you. Psychotherapy will help you figure it out. You don't have to spend your life feeling down. Over time it will not only hurt you, but may impact on your family and work life as well.

If you would like to get answers like these and connect with me on my Virtual Practice on @HealthTap, click on the link & join me and experts from around the nation 24/7.